DRAW CLOSE TO JEHOVAH - Chapter 16, Exercise Justice in Walking With God : Imagine being trapped on a sinking ship. Just when you think that there is no hope, a rescuer arrives and pulls you to safety. How relieved you feel as your rescuer takes you away from the danger and says: You are safe now! Would you not feel indebted to that person? In a very real sense, you would owe him your life. In some respects, this illustrates what Jehovah has done for us. Surely we are indebted to him. After all, he has provided the ransom, making it possible for us to be rescued from the clutches of sin and death. We feel safe knowing that as long as we exercise faith in that precious sacrifice, our sins are forgiven and our eternal future is secure. (1 John 1:7; 4:9) As we saw in Chapter 14, the ransom is a supreme expression of Jehovahs love and justice. How should we respond? It is fitting to consider what our loving Rescuer himself asks back from us. Jehovah says by means of the prophet Micah: He has told you, O earthling man, what is good. And what is Jehovah asking back from you but to exercise justice and to love kindness and to be modest in walking with your God? (Micah 6:8) Notice that one of the things Jehovah asks back from us is that we exercise justice. How can we do so? Pursuing True Righteousness Jehovah expects us to live by his standards of right and wrong. Since his standards are just and righteous, we are pursuing justice and righteousness when we confirm to them. Learn to do good: search for justice, says Isaiah 1:17. Gods Word exhorts us to seek righteousness. (Zephaniah 2:3) It also urges us to put on the new personality which was created according to Gods will in true righteousness. (Ephesians 4:24) True righteousness--true justice--shuns violence, uncleanness and immorality, for these violate what is holy.--Psalm 11:4; Ephesians 5:3-5. It is not easy for imperfect humans to pursue righteousness. We must strip off the old personality with its sinful practices and put on the new one. The Bible says that the new personality is being made new through accurate knowledge. (Colossians 3:9, 10) The words being made new indicate that putting on the new personality is a continuing process, one that requires diligent effort. No matter how hard we try to do what is right, there are times when our sinful nature causes us to stumble in thought, word or deed.--Romans 7:14-20; James 3:2. How should we view setbacks in our efforts to pursue righteousness: Of course, we would not want to minimize the seriousness of sin. At the same time, we must never give up, feeling that our shortcomings make us unfit to serve Jehovah. Our gracious God has made provision to restore sincerely repentant ones to his favour. Consider the reassuring words of the apostle John: I am writing you these things that you may not commit a sin. But then he realistically added: Yet, if anyone does commit a sin [because of inherited imperfection], we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ. (1 John 2:1) Yes, Jehovah has provided Jesus ransom sacrifice so that we might acceptably serve Him in spite of our sinful nature. Does that not move us to want to do our best to please Jehovah? The Good News and Divine Justice We can exercise justice--in fact, imitate divine justice--by having a full share in preaching the good news of Gods Kingdom to others. What connection is there between Jehovahs justice and the good news? Jehovah will not bring an end to this wicked without first having the warning sounded. In his prophecy about what would take place during the time of the end, Jesus said: In all the nations the good news has to be preached first. (Mark 13:10; Matthew 24:3) The use of the word first implies that other events will follow the worldwide preaching world. Those events include the foretold great tribulation, which will mean destruction for the wicked and pave the way for a righteous new world. (Matthew 2414, 21, 22) Certainly no one can rightly charge Jehovah with being unjust toward the wicked. By having the warning sounded, he is giving such ones ample opportunity to change their ways and therefore escape destruction.--Jonah 3:1-10
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 02:05:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015